Hotel de Glace, great music and CRAZY Boaties

1.  

Well we had managed to survive a huge day after the long bus trip, but there was no real time for a lazy lie in at the luxurious (by our standards) hotel. We had been warned to be on the bus by 9am. Those that know me well also probably know me and on time don't often occur simultaneosly, however we did make it this time!!! (sort of)

There was a reason for us to be on the bus on time and the reason was to check out some future accommodation ideas http://www.icehotel-canada.com/ mmmm a very cool place. Well I guess I could use pun after pun but all jokes aside this is somewhere I could see myself staying one day if only to say I had been kept on ice, or had been with the cool people, or had dropped in for a cold drink.

After that succession of very ordinary puns I'd better stop and get a drink!!!

So a quiet little drink was next on the agenda, 4 Caribou's and a maple whisky to be precise, and if you are asking this is not a case of a rose amongst the thorns but a beekeeper surrounded by exchange teachers. Perhaps if I hang around these people long enough I might start to learn something. Probably won't happen but you never, never know!!!

Enough of that frivolity.

After I resisted the urge

to go to church

And it was back on the bus and back to Quebec City!!!!!

I have often shaken my head at and wondered at the sanity of Surf Boat Rowers (Boaties)  but what I saw when we took the Ice Ferry that crosses on the St Lawrence River made our Boaties seem almost normal!!!

Yes they are standing on the ICE! They row until the ice gets to hard to go around and then clamber out and run along the ice with their boat before relaunching their boat and continuing. They were training for a race where they cross the river 5 times!!!!

One thing is certain that is not something that is on my "bucket list", but like the George Bass Marathon it's fun to watch. Being on the ferry across  the river was cold enough.

Back on land brought more of one of my favourite actvities. WALKING, but it was worth it, this is a beautiful place summer or winter.

After a fruitless search for a non existant restuarant we were forced to put up with great food yet again. This gave another excellent opportunity for us to use my now excellent grasp of sign language and Julie's increasing memory of schoolgirl French. Truly the food in Quebec City is great and the friendly service is as good as I can remember anywhere.

While we had been walking, hiking, trudging and limping around the city we had seen a flyer for a group that were appearing that night at Theatre petit Champlain http://www.theatrepetitchamplain/ . We had seen Galant, Tu Perds Ton Temps at the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival in 2007 and if they were good then in a tent with a small crowd in a packed theatre they were unbelievable!!! Listen to www.galanttuperdstontemps.ca/ and you'll get some idea of what the night was like.

I don't think that there were any other people in the audience (of around 200) whose first language was English and I am quite certain we were the only who would have known or indeed cared what Don Bradman's batting average was..........